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Every reporter wants a scoop, an exclusive story about a significant event. And, on the face of it, I had one. It was October 1997, I was assistant editor of The Australian Financial Review, overseeing the coverage of technology. The story was about a young genius who had invented a piece of technology so revolutionary, it could change the world of entertainment and make him a billionaire.

The young man was Adam Clark. He was 21 at the time. According to a solicitor named Roger Velik, Clark had invented a compression algorithm so efficient, it could deliver real-time broadcast-quality 768 x 576 video and CD-quality audio streams down a standard telephone line, using a 28.8 Kbps modem.

Even today, that capability would be worth billions, and in 1997 the potential was breathtaking. Velik told me he had invested in the invention and could arrange a demonstration at Clark's office. He was offering the story to me as a world exclusive.

I was excited about the story. It was a great yarn that could run on page one of any newspaper. I agreed to interview both Clark and Velik but told them I wasn't interested in the sort of demonstration they were proposing. I told Velik I was very interested in the story but wanted to see the software installed on a PC that I would provide. I was happy to erase the computer's memory and destroy the hard drive after the demonstration but wasn't prepared to write about something I couldn't be sure was genuine. There are all sorts of things you can do with demonstration machines, and I'd seen a few of them - although never with something in the league of this technology.

As the writer Ernest Hemingway said, every good journalist needs a good crap detector. After I met Clark and Velik, mine was oscillating furiously. Clark didn't impress me as the sort of young man capable of the sophisticated mathematical skills that could produce such an algorithm.

It would be a great story but the Financial Review wasn't just a technology newspaper - it was Australia's journal of the financial world. Readers would be eager to invest in this sort of technology. I didn't want to be responsible for exciting that sort of financial faith without solid proof.

Over several weeks, Velik and Clark were always seemingly on the point of providing the demonstration I wanted. But there was always a reason it couldn't proceed. Clark was suffering from an injury. They wanted to be absolutely certain I couldn't steal the secret algorithm.

I told them I wouldn't write the story until they met my conditions. It might well have been a great scoop, but I decided that the Financial Review would not run it under these conditions.

It was seven months before the story was eventually broken, in The Age. Perhaps if I had been writing for The Age and not for a financial newspaper I might have written much the same sort of story. The Age journalists were careful to point out that although they'd seen the technology demonstrated on Clark's computer, Clark had repeatedly refused to replicate the results on quarantined equipment at The Age office, citing "security concerns". It was a very clear warning.

Last week, Media World Communications, formed to market Clark's technology - now known as Adam's Platform - announced, after postponing its ASX re-listing, that it might not work.

I remembered The Age's warning, and my own caution. "We have had it tested all around the world by experts and they say it's fabulous and it works, and I'm waiting to see it work," says Michael Ramsden, Media World Communications chairman.

The company has raised a total of $28 million in the past three years. Clark and his associates have gained $16 million for the sale and licensing of Adam's Platform.

With so much public money at stake, some fundamental questions have to be asked. Did these so-called technology experts who tested Adam's Platform ever heed The Age's warning? Do crap detectors exist in the investment world? I still can't say whether Adam's Platform works, but until I see it installed on my own equipment, I wouldn't be putting my money into it.